Two weeks after promising to respond “at a time and place of our choosing” to Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats. The Russian embassy in London smells “Cold War deja vu”. The post “Cold War deja vu” as President Barack Obama
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Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need for progressive leaders and activists alike to build connections beyond borders and party lines to combat a reactionary movement which spans the globe. For further reading…– Sam Kriss discusses how the systematic stifling of the left has given rise to the toxic politics of the right.–
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Shape Of Ideological Purges To Come?
History teaches us that when political ideologies mutate into forms of state religion, those who stand in opposition or refuse to ‘get with the program’ are targeted. Nazism, with its elevation of the Aryan race at the expense of all others, is one prime example. Those who didn’t conform were
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Hyde Trump and the Return of the Bernie Revolution
In my last post I wondered whether Donald Trump was mentally fit to be president, and how long we had to live before one of his tweets started World War III ?So Trump's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde act yesterday was definitely NOT reassuring. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition into the White House
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Almost Too Grim To Contemplate
While the Pope is imploring world leaders to act with dispatch to mitigate climate change, it is hard to remain optimistic about the prospects of American engagement under incoming president Donald Trump: Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Trump unhappy because son must give up charity work due to possible conflict of interest
As part of an effort to disappear potential conflicts of interest, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump recently announced he’d dissolve the Donald J Trump Foundation. Meanwhile, the 45th President of the United States says its unfair that his son Eric must now give up charity work. The post Trump unhappy because
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jonathan Chait sees Larry Kudlow’s claim that “Wealthy folks have no need to steal or engage in corruption!” as an all-too-accurate statement of the belief system underlying Donald Trump’s presidency: What has been exposed is not only the lie at the heart of
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Is Donald Trump Too Deranged To Be President?
It's like a slow motion nightmare. Donald Trump is now just 23 days from being sworn in as president, and getting his hands on the nuclear codes.And it seems that the pressure is getting to him. He's in a highly agitated state, his bizarre Christmas card to America was badly received, as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Are they making America great again?
As much as there is an ongoing hullaballoo about President Elect Donald Trump as America runs up to his inauguration, we should never forget the people who elected him. It is quite likely that not even half these people can explain the process of the Electoral College but they are
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Sad and Very Crazy Christmas
It has to be one of the most bizarre Christmas cards a president-elect has ever sent the American people. But it does tell you a lot about Donald Trump.No sense of the occasion or the true meaning of Christmas. No family, not even Ivanka.Just HIMSELF, with his tiny fingers curled into
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Top 10 Alberta political news stories of 2016: AlbertaPolitics.ca’s picks
PHOTOS: Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen, elected as a Progressive Conservative and now a member of the NDP, Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, and the late Jim Prentice, the last PC premier of Alberta. 2016: It was the International Year of the Bean. I kid
Continue readingMontreal Simon: What Christmas Means to Me In The Time of Trump
It's Christmas Day in Canada, and now that the shopping frenzy is over, and with snow on the ground in the place where I live, the country has never seemed so peaceful and so beautiful.But this year even those colourful lights can't blot out the darkness threatening to envelop us.The darkness
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Reprising a year of bad bets.
The regrets of a political junky can be many. After years of easy political prognostications, to be a failure and ground under the heel of a person such as Donald Trump is ignominy. The guy did not even appear on our political radar until March. And we foolishly picked him
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Anatole Kaletsky discusses the gross failures of market fundamentalism. And William Easterly points out that the risks to democratic governance which now seem to be materializing can be traced to the lack of a values-based defence of empowering people to decide their own
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Betrayal of the American Working Class
As you can imagine for many progressives in the United States this is not a very happy holiday season.More like the nightmare before and after Christmas.But the good news, or small consolation, is that the ranks of the miserable will soon be swollen by many of Donald Trump's working class supporters.When
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ottawa’s Ghost of Christmas Future.
When Marley’s Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come came to see Canada’s Prime Minister, the ghost looked a lot like American President Elect Donald Trump. Justin Trudeau had many questions for him but the ghost never spoke a word. He just kept on twitting. The ghost took the Prime Minister
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Merry Christmas to all! Santa is bringing presents for everyone this holiday, regardless of political orientation
PHOTOS: Merry Christmas! Your blogger with a man who can penetrate North American air defences with ease. Russian President Vladimir Putin may not appear exactly as illustrated. (Joke.) Below: Political strategist Stephen Carter with the same blogger; Alberta pollster Janet Brown; Conservative strategist Alan Hallman, who is now associated with
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Itchy Twitter Fingers and the Inauguration Debacle
The scariest thing about Donald Trump's government by Twitter is the way his mind wanders, from the important to the trivial. Or from one button to another.One moment he's pressuring Obama to veto an anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations.The next moment he's humiliating Newt Gingrich. And then out of the blue he
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Insane War on Wind Turbines
Of all the horrible things Donald Trump is threatening to do, and there are so many, his promise to end the war against climate change is the worst.For there is no greater threat to the future of humanity, and his claim that climate change is a hoax is not just wrong, it's
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Sad But Predictable Inauguration Problems
Donald Trump is less than a month away from being sworn in as president and moving into the White House, but he is reportedly not happy.His Thank You Tour is over, he can no longer bathe in the adulation of his fanatical supporters, which he loves to do sooooo much.He is
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